discernment

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dis·cern·ment

(dĭ-sûrn′mənt)

1. The act or process of exhibiting keen insight and good judgment.

2. Keenness of insight and judgment.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

discernment

(dɪˈsɜːnmənt)

keen perception or judgment

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

dis•cern•ment

(dɪˈsɜrn mənt, -ˈzɜrn-)

n.

1. the faculty of discerning; discrimination; acuteness of judgment and understanding.

2. the act or an instance of discerning.

[1580–90; < Middle French]

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun	1.	discernment - the cognitive condition of someone who understands; "he has virtually no understanding of social cause and effect" savvy, understanding, apprehension knowing - a clear and certain mental apprehension comprehension - an ability to understand the meaning or importance of something (or the knowledge acquired as a result); "how you can do that is beyond my comprehension"; "he was famous for his comprehension of American literature" self-knowledge - an understanding of yourself and your goals and abilities smattering - a slight or superficial understanding of a subject appreciation, grasp, hold - understanding of the nature or meaning or quality or magnitude of something; "he has a good grasp of accounting practices" grasping - understanding with difficulty; "the lecture was beyond his most strenuous graspings" hindsight - understanding the nature of an event after it has happened; "hindsight is always better than foresight" brainstorm, brainwave, insight - the clear (and often sudden) understanding of a complex situation realization, realisation, recognition - coming to understand something clearly and distinctly; "a growing realization of the risk involved"; "a sudden recognition of the problem he faced"; "increasing recognition that diabetes frequently coexists with other chronic diseases"
	2.	discernment - delicate discrimination (especially of aesthetic values); "arrogance and lack of taste contributed to his rapid success"; "to ask at that particular time was the ultimate in bad taste" appreciation, perceptiveness, taste discrimination, secernment - the cognitive process whereby two or more stimuli are distinguished connoisseurship, vertu, virtu - love of or taste for fine objects of art vogue, style, trend - the popular taste at a given time; "leather is the latest vogue"; "he followed current trends"; "the 1920s had a style of their own" delicacy, discretion - refined taste; tact culture - the tastes in art and manners that are favored by a social group
	3.	discernment - perception of that which is obscure perceptiveness perception - knowledge gained by perceiving; "a man admired for the depth of his perception"
	4.	discernment - the mental ability to understand and discriminate between relations sagaciousness, sagacity, judgement, judgment eye - good discernment (either visually or as if visually); "she has an eye for fresh talent"; "he has an artist's eye" common sense, good sense, gumption, horse sense, mother wit, sense - sound practical judgment; "Common sense is not so common"; "he hasn't got the sense God gave little green apples"; "fortunately she had the good sense to run away" judiciousness - good judgment circumspection, discreetness, discretion, prudence - knowing how to avoid embarrassment or distress; "the servants showed great tact and discretion" indiscreetness, injudiciousness - lacking good judgment sapience, wisdom - ability to apply knowledge or experience or understanding or common sense and insight
	5.	discernment - the trait of judging wisely and objectively; "a man of discernment" discretion wisdom, wiseness - the trait of utilizing knowledge and experience with common sense and insight circumspection, caution - the trait of being circumspect and prudent prudence - discretion in practical affairs

discernment

noun judgment, discrimination, perception, understanding, intelligence, awareness, insight, penetration, ingenuity, sharpness, acumen, cleverness, keenness, shrewdness, perspicacity, sagacity, astuteness, acuteness, perceptiveness, clear-sightedness, percipience their lack of discernment and acceptance of inferior quality

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

discernment

noun

Skill in perceiving, discriminating, or judging:

acumen, astuteness, clear-sightedness, discrimination, eye, keenness, nose, penetration, perceptiveness, percipience, percipiency, perspicacity, sagacity, sageness, shrewdness, wit.

Translations

Diskriminierung Einsicht Urteilsvermögen

διάκριση

discernement

discernimento sagacia

discernment

[dɪˈsɜːnmənt] N (= good judgment) → discernimiento m; (= good taste) → buen gusto m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

discernment

[dɪˈsɜː^rnmənt] n (= judgment) → discernement m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

discernment

(= ability to discern, observation) → feines Gespür; (discriminating taste) → kritisches Urteilsvermögen

(= act of discerning, with senses) → Wahrnehmung f; (mentally) → Erkennen nt

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

discernment

[dɪˈsɜːnmənt] n → discernimento

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

References in classic literature ?

Your own discernment shall ye follow out to the end!

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Nevertheless, the old sea-traditions, the immemorial credulities, popularly invested this old Manxman with preternatural powers of discernment. So that no white sailor seriously contradicted him when he said that if ever Captain Ahab should be tranquilly laid out --which might hardly come to pass, so he muttered --then, whoever should do that last office for the dead, would find a birth-mark on him from crown to sole.

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She was remarkably quick in the discovery of attachments, and had enjoyed the advantage of raising the blushes and the vanity of many a young lady by insinuations of her power over such a young man; and this kind of discernment enabled her soon after her arrival at Barton decisively to pronounce that Colonel Brandon was very much in love with Marianne Dashwood.

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There is a quickness of perception in some, a nicety in the discernment of character, a natural penetration, in short, which no experience in others can equal, and Lady Russell had been less gifted in this part of understanding than her young friend.

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Such was the discernment of Mrs Wilkins, and such the respect she bore her master, under whom she enjoyed a most excellent place, that her scruples gave way to his peremptory commands; and she took the child under her arms, without any apparent disgust at the illegality of its birth; and declaring it was a sweet little infant, walked off with it to her own chamber.

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There are men of low rank who strain themselves to bursting to pass for gentlemen, and high gentlemen who, one would fancy, were dying to pass for men of low rank; the former raise themselves by their ambition or by their virtues, the latter debase themselves by their lack of spirit or by their vices; and one has need of experience and discernment to distinguish these two kinds of gentlemen, so much alike in name and so different in conduct."

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The difference between a direct importation from abroad, and an indirect importation through the channel of a neighboring State, in small parcels, according to time and opportunity, with the additional facilities of inland communication, must be palpable to every man of discernment.

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If the observation be well founded, that wise kings will always be served by able ministers, it is fair to argue, that as an assembly of select electors possess, in a greater degree than kings, the means of extensive and accurate information relative to men and characters, so will their appointments bear at least equal marks of discretion and discernment. The inference which naturally results from these considerations is this, that the President and senators so chosen will always be of the number of those who best understand our national interests, whether considered in relation to the several States or to foreign nations, who are best able to promote those interests, and whose reputation for integrity inspires and merits confidence.

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THE reader will perhaps understand that at first everything was so strange about me, and my position was the outcome of such unexpected adventures, that I had no discernment of the relative strangeness of this or that thing.

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"How despicably I have acted!" she cried; "I, who have prided myself on my discernment! I, who have valued myself on my abilities!

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The repentance of her lover at the Bath, and how brought by the just alarm of his fit of sickness to abandon her; the just caution given there against even the lawful intimacies of the dearest friends, and how unable they are to preserve the most solemn resolutions of virtue without divine assistance; these are parts which, to a just discernment, will appear to have more real beauty in them all the amorous chain of story which introduces it.

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But with more feeling and discernment he would have recognized the noble beauty of its modeling, and the graceful severity of poise and movement, which made Edna Pontellier different from the crowd.